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I am using unlocked Blackberry 8900 handset. what would be monthly charges for using services with internet access and GPS.

Has anyone heard of a charge when exporting goods 'home' if they have been in the country less than 12 months. We know of people who are considering going home having only been here a few months and were told by a shipping company that they'd have to pay taxes and charges because the goods had been in Oz less than 12 months? This sounded nonsense to me but I'm not an expert? Any thoughts?

Hi I have withdrawn my visa application and the immigration office has refused my request for a refund. They told me the legislation does allow for a refund if the applicant simply withdraws. Now I find this unfair. Here is why: I withdrew my application because of the new processing times. In fact I should say I decided to withdraw because of the absence of a time frame and any assurance that my visa will be processed at all, if ever. When I had lodged my application, the understanding given by the immigration office was it would be done in 6-9 months. And now when this time frame has expanded interminably, I was not willing to wait and so chose to withdraw. So why should I be penalised for something that is not my fault? I am trying to find out if there is a way to challenge this policy or legislation. I would like to hear from anyone who is in a similar situation, or just any advice of how I can go about this. Thanks

Just a tip for anyone who may need to keep their shipped goods in storage while they sort out accommodation etc. Beware of the hidden charges of having your stuff moved from the docks ( Charged handling fee both for the delay at Xmas and moving into the warehouse), put into storage entails paying for storage rental at about $52 per week and then there is a storage handling charge of around $280. Of course when you do find somewhere you then have to pay for unstowing and redelivery charges at whatever they may levy. Lastly if you need to access any of your gear during storage time you have to pay for a storeman/storemen to unstow, retrieve and restow!! There is nothing free folks, they all want a slice of your pie!

Hi, sure i just read that from 23rd September there will be a charge of $220 for WA skilled sponsorship. Glad we put ours in when we did. :eek:

Hello all, Does any one know once you have received the grant letter (we have sent off our passports to the embassey) do we have any further payments to make to Diac? I know, a bit of a dumb question after all the paper work we have already endured!! Thanks for you help Jonathan:wubclub:

Hi We're hoping to ship all our stuff out to Perth in mid December - we've chosen Crown as they include the AQIS (Australian Quarantine Inspection Service?) fee usually payable on arrival, plus their prices, service, reputation seems pretty good. I have been warned by a competitor to Crown that paying the AQIS fee upfront may mean we pay more on arrival for any fumigation/destruction that may be necessary, and that 9 out of 10 shipments require fumigation etc to some of the items. I just wondered if anyone has had experience of this. How likely is it that they will want to fumigate/destroy something? We're not taking anything we shouldn't and the only items on the 'restricted' list (provided by Crown) will be some bikes which will be scrubbed to within an inch of their lives with jeys fluid! Does anyone know how the fees are set - do they vary from one company to the next or are they set by Customs? Just trying to figure out whether Crown are ripping us off with their selling point of including the AQIS fee, or is it just sour grapes from the competitor? Any help, advice, personal experiences much appreciated, Many thanks Jo

Hi, We will be moving to oz later this year and are aware that different aussie banks use different ways to charge you for using you own money i.e monthly charges for holding an account and others do not charge for that but do charge for ATM transactions. can anyone tell me please of a comparison web site on Aussie banks or if they themselves can give me any advise. all comments welcome. Best regards glynn and Family:smile:

Can anyone advise of the best bank to open an account with before we go. Is it usually better to open one beforehand and we would like low bank charges if possible (obviously!!!) Any advice gratefully received. Vicky

My youngest had to go to casualty the other day at the Austin Hospital (Heidelberg, Melbourne). The service was fantastic, we were seen straight away by a triage nurse then within minutes seen by 2 doctors. We were treated really kindly and the hospital seemed fine and clean. We were charged for steriods and the bill came to day and it was $5. Bargain! They even gave me his inhaler and inhaler tube free as they said they wouldn't re use it. I was so worried we would end up with a huge bill but we had to take him. He is fine now, it's more a message to say that the service was good and that we were covered (apart from the cost of the prescription) under the medicare system. regards Michelle

It seems that not all businesses having been doing the right thing. From: Rebuke from PM over interest charges | smh.com.au THE Commonwealth Bank was forced to declare yesterday that it would waive home loan interest charges for all customers affected by the bushfires for three months, after complaints from a fire victim drew a rebuke for the bank from the Federal Government. A Kinglake resident, Matt Falla, told ABC Radio yesterday that while he had not lost his home, he would struggle to meet his loan repayment obligations because the devastation wrought by the fires meant he was no longer able to earn an income as a self-employed carpenter.

hi, iv just received some quotes from shipping companies and although they are roughly the same they are not very clear as to what charges we will occur in melbourne. could anyone thats been there and done that shed an light on the matter? thanks in advance tess xx:notworthy:

Our agent to be fair has been top service, however they phoned me last week to see if there was any thing we required and the call was short and we spent half the call talking about the weather in NZ and her flu. We also had a generic e-mail recently that was not even about are application. The cheeky gits then sent us an invoice for £180 at this stage they have us by the short and curlys, I would be gratefull if any one nos if this is against the norm or even against the law. I am thinking of paying the bill and sending a harsh e-mail with it.

After trying to rip us off for $143, for them not picking up our container on time. The removal company have now said that our daughters rocking horse needs "Gamma Irradiation" treatment. The cost for this $440!!!!!!. Or have it destroyed for $110 or re-exported for $440. I looked on the AQIS website and saw the fee should be $60 and have emailed them to confirm the cost. Has anyone else had this treatment done, if so, what was the cost? Paul:arghh:

hi could someone please help me..i'm confused i am applying for the ens subclass 121/856 visa and i need to know what fees i have to pay for the actual visa. Is it just the 1st installment? thanks

Hi can anybody tell me if it is priced per item on a prescription I take medication for thyroxine and for Rheumatoid but do not pay here so need to know what the prices are like in OZ also how much for blood tests as I have to have these regularly as well many thanks Gilly:chatterbox:

Hi, i wonder if anyone has any idea what the visa charges are going to be going up by?? We were planning on applying online once my OH has his vetassess results, doing it on the 15th July. Oh does anyone recommend doing it before th 30th June to avoid the increase. :arghh:

Hi everyone, does anyone know how much increase in visa charges is expected?? And is it going to be for all the sub-classess?? could anyone specify a link that says raise in charges is expected.. cz i couldnt find it on the DIMA site. thanks.. Cheers..

Hi all - my wife & I have now got our visas to emigrate. We are coming to Oz in March to activate the visas and do a recy for a month as well as have a good holiday.....The first question we have is regarding moving money from the Uk to Oz. We have read various and what seem conflicting views which have confused us. When finally emigrating, can we not leave money/property back in the UK without incurring large tax implications? Also the costs of moving money from the UK to Oz seem very expensive unless you move your money within 12 months of emigrating, is that true? Not wanting to sound too pesimistic, but if things do not work out, we do not want to be penalised in any way. I have spoken to my bank (HSBC) and they have confirmed charges are not too high, so what have you all done when moving your money between countries and what charges did you incur? Thanks everyone, Neil & Michelle

Hi all This is our first time on the site. We're moving to Melbourne in December on a 457. Up until now we had been planning to go on a 138 (as was). It has taken some time to have skills assessed although as soon as they were I received a job offer and hence the move in December. Our query is this. Until now we had instructed a migration agent to assist with the skills assessment and the 138 visa. The agent did very little on the assessment - I have done the majority of the work. The agent has done nothing in the visa process apart from some initial advice way back when we first approached them. For the privilege of this the agent has to date invoiced us over £3,500. This seems extortionate as far as I can tell. We were wondering whether anyone has any experience of complaining about an agent and if so how far they had to go before getting an acceptable response - eg report it to MARA or MIA?

Hi all, I have been looking at the visa charges for moving over to Oz and I'm a little confussed (doesn't take much). My wife had an interview over the phone the other night and was offered a job there and then with the PA hospital in Brisbane and they said that if we wanted to they would sponsor us. I know with sponsorship you could be tied to them for so long, but with it being with the Queensland Health Authority, you'd be able to move around within the Authority. Getting to the point now! The immi website says the the ENS charge is $365. Is this all we pay? or do we still have to pay the 1st insallment of $1390 and then the second of $2860 as well as the $365 ? We are wanting to go on a PR visa and not a temporary one, which the immi says that you can be sponsored on a PR? Any guidance would be much appreciated, as now things are really moving forward and we can almost smell the BBQ! The Tuckers

Hy I hope this will be of use to a lot of people as i have just requested the information today. Read on and maybe......just maybe any bank charges you may get back from over 6 years worth could pay towards your Australia move, flight or fresh passports the list goes on. This information isn't common knowledge and when you read on you will undr=erstand why the banks wish to keep it quiet. Below is a copy of the script on the website i found this information and i rang my bank this morning and pressed the issue with them, guess what ? they finally gave in when i mentioned that it is my right under the Data Protection Act. Read on While every effort’s been made to ensure this article’s accuracy, it isn’t intended to be seen as legal advice and no liability can be accepted for any individual claimants who rely upon the information given. It's believed any charges banks levy on their customers must be proportional to the actual costs they incur. The simple question is, ‘does it really cost £35 to send an automated letter when someone’s gone 1p over the limit?’ Thus write to your bank asking for a list of your last six years’ charges, add interest on top and ask for a full refund. When it refuses inform it you’ll go to court under the small claims system. In most cases, the bank will simply pay out. One person received £36,000. Let’s be technical for a moment. The core rule being argued is that if there’s a breach of contract under English or Scottish law, any charge should not exceed the cost of the breach. In other words, banks can only impose charges which are in proportion to their costs. Yet when you go beyond your overdraft limit, or have a cheque or direct debit payment bounce, the bank charges a penalty of £30 to £35 a time. Is a charge of this scale really proportionate? Remember it could simply be a charge for going a penny over the limit. Importantly, the bank is actually fining you for going over the limit, and this fine is too high, hence under the law of penalties this is ‘extravagant’. After all, it simply sends a computer-generated automatic letter with a franked stamp. In fact a recent report by a Professor of Banking tasked with the job estimated the real cost, even being generous, to be only between £2.50 and £4.50. When you look at all this together, bank charges are unlawful, and that means the bank did not have a right to take your money. Yet it did, and it did it automatically, thus you are entitled to get your cash back. Isn’t it in the terms and conditions though? Of course when you got the bank account there were terms and conditions (though most don’t read them). Yet that’s irrelevant; a contract must be written within the law, and they can’t enforce a contract with legally unfair terms. Ultimately if it isn't proportionate then it's unlawful, and thus you've a right to your money back. Let me use my favourite analogy for this: If someone told you they were about to punch you before smacking you; it doesn’t make it legal. The same’s true with bank charges. If anyone wants the website address then leave a reply to this thread. Good Luck

Question??? I began a new morgage deal in July last year. It is a repayment morgage that has early repayment charges for each year(3 year deal). I have been told that as with the Bank charges (that loads of people are claiming back from their banks as they are illegal) the early repayment charges you pay when ending your morgage are illegal to, and should not be charged. Does anyone know if this is true. I believe there is a website about this and you can even print off county court judgements(at a charge) if they contest. Has anyone heard of this??? Lindsay x

hi all, had meds done today at cromwell hospital in london, quoted £960 over the phone for myself my wife, son of 17 & daughters 11 & 12 this included meds, xrays,hiv blood test plus hep b&c for me & wife as we have tattoos ended up paying £1200 should have been £1300 but he knocked £100 off because we queried so everyone going for meds beware good luck all kev

HI PLease can anyone advise me about the situation when it comes to Bank charges after you have left the UK. I am sure I read on here somewhere that if you leave the UK you have the right to claim bank the same years Bank Charges which may have been charged by your bank. Also I signed a form before I left the UK which should have closed my account and cancelled all Direct Debits, I have since discovered three months down the line that the bank has not actually closed my account and that they have since been paying out Direct Debits that were cancelled, any idea on my rights please. Thankyou Mo